Archive for the 'Stevie Nicks' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

It may have taken more than 15 years to put all five pieces back together, but it sure didn't require much more time to book a tour once they did.

A mere four months ago, U.K. newspaper The Guardian reported that Christine McVie was keen to end her retirement from the road and rejoin Fleetwood Mac, the group she helped transform from a blues-rock machine into a mellower and more influential juggernaut in the '70s. Despite contributing a few backing vocals to the band's 2003 effort Say You Will – at about the same time she was cutting her last solo album, In the Meantime – McVie, 70, hasn't properly played with the Mac since a 1997-98 reunion outing that yielded the quintuple-platinum live disc The Dance.

But that will change this fall. Following drummer and founding member Mick Fleetwood's January confirmation that McVie had returned to the fold, a 33-city North American tour has been announced, launching Sept. 30 from Minneapolis. The trek, simply dubbed On With the Show, doesn't arrive in Southern California, however, until Thanksgiving weekend.

That's when the classic Rumours lineup of the group – Fleetwood, McVie, her former husband John McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham – will revisit an old stomping ground, the recently renovated Forum, for two shows, Nov. 28-29. After that, they head to San Diego for a Dec. 2 stop at Viejas Arena.

When you're a band like Fleetwood Mac – and more than four decades and several permutations later, there remains no band quite like Fleetwood Mac – any time you decide to play live again, you're under heavy obligation to deliver a wealth of familiar material.

Especially when you're headlining the Hollywood Bowl, as the group superbly did Saturday night for the first time since 1997, with virtually nothing new to showcase. That only heightens fan expectation for strictly classics-filled performances.

It's slightly different with, say, the Rolling Stones, though that overpaid lot had even less recent stuff to shill when they blew through town earlier this month. They've merely tacked two rote ones onto an umpteenth retrospective, while the Mac has at least issued a digital-only four-song EP, a sampler of slowly gestating gems that boasts two tunes worthy of their vaunted canon.

"Sad Angel" is their catchiest cut in years, by the way, while "Without You" is an evocative nugget from the early '70s, when the struggling duo Buckingham-Nicks were about to join an unfocused, collapsing outfit that had once again lost its lead guitarist – then sell tens of millions of records, and lastingly alter the face and feel of rock.

They had been insisting since before their latest tour started that new music might arrive sooner than later, and probably in unconventional form. Tuesday that tentative vow was unexpectedly upheld, as a four-song EP, simply titled Extended Play, has surfaced on iTunes for a little less than $4.

Two of the songs, "Sad Angel" and "Without You," have been anticipated by fans after Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks noted they would be included at shows during a Rolling Stone interview in January, shortly before the release of a mondo deluxe edition of their landmark 1977 album Rumours.

"Sad Angel" is a catchy, driving number, if also a touch bittersweet, and very much in the vein of material from 1982's Mirage. "Without You" is a leftover from the duo's pre-Mac Buckingham Nicks days that they'd apparently forgotten about until a rare demo surfaced on YouTube.

That latter cut is vintage stuff, with Buckingham's 12-string strumming prominent in the mix while he and Nicks blend beautifully on the melody. But on "Sad Angel" and the remaining pair of tunes – the somber piano-and-strings ballad "It Takes Time" and the livelier piece "Miss Fantasy" – Nicks sounds like a bystander, a guest star on a Buckingham solo disc. The guitarist has said he and longtime rhythm partners Mick Fleetwood and John McVie had cut several tracks with Nicks' voice in mind, yet here she merely provides harmony vocals, albeit in her unmistakeable manner.

Even in a region as accustomed to star-studded events as Southern California, it has been an extraordinary time for rare occurrences lately. Elton John and Sarah McLachlan played Disney California Adventure. The original Blasters reunited in Santa Ana. The Who played Quadrophenia for the first time in 16 years. Ben Folds Five got back together after a decade-plus apart and packed the Mouse House.

All of it was stunning to varying degrees. Yet none of it compares to what Dave Grohl put together at the Hollywood Palladium Thursday night.

To add something extra to the L.A. premiere earlier that evening of his directorial debut Sound City, a loving and ear-opening elegy to the renowned Van Nuys studio that also serves as a fantastic encapsulation of ’70s-’90s rock history, Grohl amassed many of the key figures from the film (dubbed the Sound City Players) for a nearly nonstop 3½-hour release party.

On hand, often with Foo Fighters backing them, were several artists who cut their teeth or laid down classics at the dumpy sonic wonderland. There were punk vets (Fear’s Lee Ving) alongside cult heroes (Masters of Reality’s Chris Goss), outright legends (John Fogerty) following new-era icons (Slipknot’s Corey Taylor). Plus two talents for whom Sound City was crucial: Rick Springfield, who owes his career to the place, and Stevie Nicks, who languished there alongside then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham until luck brought the rest of Fleetwood Mac into the studio to blaze new trails with its self-titled 1975 disc and the monumental Rumours.

January 26th, 2013, 6:10 pm by GEORGE A. PAUL, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Friday morning, one of the more interesting sights downstairs in Hall E was the display of unusual and antique instruments plus Rod Stewart and the Faces memorabilia from the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad. A rare early '70s tape relay keyboard originally designed with Yes’ Rick Wakeman in mind, an echoplex, stylophone, Irish harp, gut bucket and 1969 Rick Turner-designed "pretzel" guitar were just a few of the items.

Upstairs in the Gibson guitar room, Echosmith, an L.A. four piece comprising the teenage Sierota siblings, impressed with a six-song acoustic set that sometimes brought to mind a less annoying Paramore. They were recently signed to Warner Bros. Records, are working on an album with Mike Elizondo (Maroon 5) and have Owl City and Vans Warped Tour stints on the horizon. At NAMM, Echosmith excelled with the totally catchy single "Come Together," upbeat and fun "Bright" and a folk-rock cover of Modern English’s "I Melt with You."

If you’re performing amid all the hustle and bustle of the main convention floor, it’s not easy to get heard. But Taylor Matthews - a top 10 finalist on America’s Got Talent in 2010 - definitely did at the Sennheiser booth. The young pop singer-songwriter gave an impassioned delivery on the title track to his current EP, Head Over Feeling. One to watch.

NAMM happened to host some past and present members of the Doobie Brothers this year. The invite-only Yamaha shindig at Disney California Adventure headlined by Elton John also had Michael McDonald. Meanwhile, the Taylor Guitars room at the convention center boasted an appearance from Pat Simmons.

Making his second-ever trip to NAMM, the veteran singer-guitarist’s seemingly rare 40-minute acoustic set was easygoing and leavened with humorous asides about the songs. Catering to die-hard fans in the packed space, Simmons displayed dexterity during a few instrumentals based on ragtime and the slack-key guitar styles of his Hawaiian residence.

Little more than a month ago we finally got a glimpse of Dave Grohl's Sound City, his documentary about the renowned Van Nuys studio that enabled the recording of scores of rock classics. And as the year began we heard about the formation of the Sound City Players, a supergroup of stars who appear in the film (opening in limited release on Feb. 1) and on its Real to Reel soundtrack (which doesn't drop until March 12).

The star-studded lineup instantly sold out a show slated for Jan. 18 at the Sundance Film Festival – and now they've added a one-off appearance at the Hollywood Palladium on Jan. 31, the same night Sound City debuts at the Cinerama Dome just a few blocks down Sunset Boulevard.

Who will perform alongside the Foo Fighters frontman? A cavalcade of names, all of whom cut sides at the studio back in the day, including Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty, Rick Springfield, Fear leader Lee Ving, Rage Against the Machine drummer Brad Wilk, Cheap Trick guitarist and songwriter Rick Nielsen, Robert Levon Been and Peter Hayes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Alain Johannes, Chris Goss and more.

Also expect to see Grohl's current and past band mates in the mix: Taylor Hawkins, Krist Novoselic, Chris Shiflett, Nate Mendel and Pat Smear. And it wouldn't shock if Paul McCartney turned up, either here or at Sundance, seeing as he contributed to the soundtrack tune "Cut Me Some Slack." The Palladium set is likely to feature other songs from that collection as well as classics from many of the stars involved.

As former Register music critic Mark Brown revealed in his interview Monday afternoon with Stevie Nicks for MSN Music, Fleetwood Mac has confirmed what's been rumored more or less all year: The band will hit the road come spring, launching a two-month, 34-city trek across the U.S. on April 4 in Columbus, Ohio.

The Hall of Famers -- Nicks plus guitarist and co-vocalist Lindsey Buckingham and rhythm section namesakes John McVie and Mick Fleetwood (Christine McVie remains retired) -- have two Southern California appearances on their itinerary, May 25 at the Hollywood Bowl and May 28 at Honda Center in Anaheim.

Surrounding stops include San Jose's HP Pavilion on May 22, the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 26 and Phoenix's US Airways Center on May 30. (For anyone without a calendar, Memorial Day is May 27.)

Tickets for select markets go on sale as soon as next weekend, but the Bowl and Honda shows probably won't become available for a bit more after that, perhaps not until 2013 is underway.

October 3rd, 2012, 12:00 am by PETER LARSEN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Dave Stewart strikes a pose. Photo: Cristina Dunlap. Click for more pics from throughout his career.

Hollywood – It's a busy afternoon in the offices of Weapons of Mass Entertainment, the company created by musician Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame to oversee his many musical, theatrical, television and film projects.

In a softly lit room, one of his crew is working on computer visuals to accompany the song "Magic in the Blues" for Stewart's show at the Troubadour in West Hollywood on Friday, an intimate show set to celebrate the release of his new album, The Ringmaster General.

Next door, two more members of Stewart's staff are working on edits and a trailer for the documentary film of the same name, a quirky inside look at the making of the The Ringmaster General and its predecessor, The Blackbird Diaries, over two five-day bursts of creativity in a Nashville recording studio.

Stewart takes a seat in small conference room in his penthouse suite on the 11th floor of a vintage building at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. The window behind him offers a spectacular view of the iconic Capitol Records building on the north side of the block.

Awaiting the next band during the first day of US Festival '82, which attracted 425,000 people over Labor Day weekend to Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino, now the site of San Manuel Amphitheater. Steve Wozniak's $13 million creation returned Memorial Day weekend '83. Photo: The Orange County Register. Click for more.

An US Fest '82 attendee hoists her seat cushion. Photo: The Orange County Register

We insatiable music lovers live in a rather glorious time when wildly eclectic weekend-long festivals packed with the biggest names from all corners of the globe are taken for granted, defying economic downturns and routinely drawing tens of thousands to sell-out encounters.

The annual spring Coachella gathering, 13 years strong and currently doubled in size, remains the pace-setter, with the behemoth Bonnaroo in Tennessee, Austin City Limits, Chicago-centered Lollapalooza, Sasquatch to the north and Outside Lands in San Francisco right behind it. This very weekend brings two more: rap maven Jay-Z's Made in America festival in Philadelphia, featuring Pearl Jam, Beyoncé, D'Angelo and the reunited Run-D.M.C., plus Bumbershoot in Seattle, spearheaded by Jane's Addiction, electronic star Skrillex and pop legend Tony Bennett. So popular are such bacchanals that, like Coachella and Bonnaroo before them, these too will stream live via YouTube.

Those are only the leading lights of a trend whose offshoots come a dime a dozen. If rabid festival junkies really wanted to – and had the thousands it would cost to indulge their habit – they could travel the country from Easter to Thanksgiving and experience major events virtually every week.

Over the course of a two-hour performance, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Fleetwood Mac mainstay was in fine form. Entering to Missing Persons' “Destination Unknown” (perhaps a nod to her hard-partying years), she and her nine-piece band tore through “Stand Back” as Nicks did some of those trademark twirls. Then she immediately provided a disclaimer: “This is not a greatest hits tour. I'm promoting a record that I believe in from the bottom of my soul. Let's get this party started.”

I missed Nicks with Rod Stewart at the Hollywood Bowl (which landed right in the middle of Coachella) but never thought she'd return to play such a small venue. A large portion of the packed Grove audience had probably seen her before, either alone or with the Mac, so hearing a set half-devoted to newer material didn't seem to be a problem. Those songs all got enthusiastic responses, especially ones prefaced by a riveting background story.

Bolstered by a solo career that crossed the 30-year mark this summer, Nicks' popularity has rarely waned; the most successful of all Mac musicians, each of her albums has been certified gold or platinum. The 63-year-old singer has a legion of unique followers – female and male – who dress like and impersonate her. Nicks even joined Maroon 5 for a version of “Landslide” when that group played the Hollywood Bowl in July, a testament to her influence on younger bands.

Back in May, In Your Dreams, Nicks' first studio album in a decade, debuted in the Top 10, with two singles eventually reaching Top 30 at adult contemporary radio. The strong, nuanced collection found her collaborating with longtime friend and co-producer Dave Stewart, the quieter half of Eurythmics, who also has worked behind the boards for Mick Jagger and Ringo Starr. In true classic-rock form, eight of the 13 tracks clock in longer than five minutes. Former paramours Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood and Heartbreaker Mike Campbell guest on selected tracks.